Prodigy with link to South-Africa a YouTube sensation

When Amira arrived last Thursday at the Vergelegen wine estate, one could easily be misled in assuming she was just any ordinary child on holiday with her family. Only a few in South-Africa could know that one of the world’s youngest singing stars had arrived in Cape Town.

The video clips of the 9-year-old have been watched more than 15 million times on YouTube, afer she took part in Holland’s Got Talent. And many viewers learned about Amira’s African Connection -her mother’s from Soutn-Africa-, and that she’s partially in town to strengthen the bonds with her African history.

Friday- and Saturdaynight Amira will be one of the artists performing during the Starlight Classics Concerts at Vergelegen, Sommerset West.

Amira Willighagen

Amira’s career as a singer started when she taught herself to sing by watching YouTube-videos.

Her mother, Frieda Willighagen, was born in South-Africa and moved to the Netherlands in 1995; Her grandma, Elsa Brand, stayed in Potchefstroom until she died in Noevmber 2013.

At the age of seven, during one of the visits to her grandma she went to Ikageng. What she saw there really moved her, because she realized that the children there -in her opinion- did nave ‘nothing to do’ and ‘nowhere to play’. Amira promptly decided that she, if she would ever get the opportunity, donate money to the Ikageng township for the benefit of the children there.

Amia will now donate 50 percent of her fees eanred with her South-African concerts to build the playground of her dreams vor the children of Ikageng.

Thursday, Amira took part in the rehearsals. A playful child that sings cheerful, speaks Dutch with a hint to Afrikaans every now and then. She and the other artists will be accompanied by a 60-piece orchestra directed by South-African top director Richard Cock.